What gardener hasn’t wished for the impossible: cobalt blue roses, frost-hardy petunias, lawn grass that never needs mowing? In hindsight, maybe we should have been more careful what we wished for. These wishes and more may soon come true, in the form of transgenic ornamental plants…

FLOWERING BROAD-LEAVED evergreen shrubs are unexcelled for providing all-season interest. Rhododendrons, pieris, camellias, laurustinus, skimmias, aucubas, evergreen azaleas, and all the rest rightfully deserve all the coddling, pampering, and winter protection they require in all but the mildest climates. But …